Checking Claims in the Senate Runoff
David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz are in a July 31 runoff. Image courtesy DonkeyHotey at flickr.com/donkeyhotey/Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Next month, Texas Republicans will choose David Dewhurst or Ted Cruz to be the party’s U.S. Senate nominee. The two are headed to a runoff July 31 after wailing on each other in the run-up to the May primary.
To walk us through two of their claims, KUT’s Emily Donahue turned to Gardner Selby of the Austin American Statesman’s PolitiFact Texas for a pair of fact checks.
A Cruz claim about budget cutting:
These results do not mean Dewhurst never once cut the budget. State funding, which is what the legislators have the most control over, that was reduced in one session by nearly $1 billion. Also, Cruz didn’t even mention the 2012-13 budget, the one that Texas is living under now.
A Dewhurst claim about immigration advocacy:
We looked into whether there is indeed a national push for amnesty, that was part of Dewhurst’s claim, and there really isn’t one lately. But more importantly, is this institute leading the push, as the Dewhurst ads suggest? And that turned out to be negative.
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